The ramblings of a Toxic mind...

It happened this week…

Dec262009

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1906, the first radio broadcast of a music program is carried out by Reginald Fessenden…

1918, German composer Franz Gruber pens the music for “Silent Night”… the words have been written by Josef Mohr…it is performed for the first time the next day—Christmas day—at Oberndorff, Austria in the Church of St. Nikolaus…

1954, musical boy wonder Johnny Ace offs himself… Ace is backstage at a Houston concert playing Russian roulette…he first points and clicks the gun harmlessly at two others backstage… but when he points it at his own head the folly of this pastime is brought home instantly and irrevocably…

Though Big Mama Thornton’s bass player Curtis Tillman who witnessed it stated that…

I will tell you exactly what happened! Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had this little pistol he was waving around the table and someone said ‘Be careful with that thing…’ and he said ‘It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded…see?’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face and ‘Bang!’ – sad, sad thing. Big Mama ran outta that dressing room yelling ‘Johnny Ace just killed hisself’ – Curtis Tillman

1955, the Lennon Sisters make their debut as regulars on ABC-TV’s musical variety program The Lawrence Welk Show…

1959, an 18-year-old Richard Starkey gets his first drum kit as a Christmas present… the kit will take him far…

1962, pop songbird Brenda Lee narrowly escapes the flames while dashing into her burning Nashville home in an attempt to rescue her poodle Cee Cee… Lee is slightly injured, Cee Cee dies from smoke inhalation, and the home is destroyed… British band The Tornadoes score a #1 Billboard hit with their instrumental “Telstar” named for the first communications satellite… they’ll go down in pop history as the first Brits to have a #1 hit in the U.S. …

1963, The Beatles begin an annual tradition of sorts when they hold their first “Beatles Christmas Show” at the Astoria Cinema in Finsbury Park, London… . the show features hits and comedy skits by the Beatles and other musical acts including Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, Cilla Black, and Rolf Harris…

1965,Rubber Soul goes gold after just two weeks on sale… a cover version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” by The Wonder Who tops out at #12 on Christmas Day… it doesn’t take but a few seconds of hearing it to identify the lead singer as Franki Valli… because of its nom-de-disc, the group qualifies for one-hit-wonder status… the recording is part of Dylan tribute album that was never finished… reportedly Valli couldn’t nail the vocal to his satisfaction but the Philips label though it had enough goofy charm to be released…

1967, The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, which Tom Wolfe will later claim is inspired by the travels of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, premieres on BBC-TV… shot in color, it airs in black and white… it creates plenty of mystery in its own right when audiences try to figure out what the Liverpudlian novice filmmakers could possibly have been thinking…

1970, George Harrison hits the post-Beatles’ charts with the three-disc set All Things Must Pass… Harrison had demo’d several of the songs to The Beatles while they were recording “The White Album” but the tunes were met with what could be described as aggressive indifference…

1972, local residents raise hell about all the noise coming from a Manfred Mann concert in Miami… authorities pull the plug mid-concert and the crowd goes berserk… destruction results…

1973, just two weeks before his band’s release of What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers goes down for reefer possession…

1974, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Joni Mitchell take to the streets of Los Angeles singing Christmas carols…

1975, a whacked-out fan levels a loaded .44 at super-hunter Ted Nugent but is brought down without incident by a combined force of security guards and fans…

1976, proving that they scored big when they got Joe Walsh on board, the Eagles check into platinum sales status and an eight-week residence at #1 with Hotel California… in London, The Sex Pistols record “God Save The Queen”…

1977, The Sex Pistols tour of the U.S. is held up by immigration officials who refuse entry visas until questions about band members’ criminal records are answered… the four members have wracked up rap sheets for drug possession, burglary, theft, and assault… after some scrutiny, they get their papers the next day…

1978, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Falkstad (both of ABBA) announce their separation and that they plan to divorce…

1979, Elvis Costello performs in London at a Christmas Day concert with Paul McCartney & Wings, and Rockpile… Emerson, Lake & Palmer announce their breakup…

1980, Depeche Mode announce that Vince Clarke is leaving the band to become a solo artist…

1981, singer-songwriter-bandleader and occasional movie actor Hoagy Carmichael dies at age 82… he composed many standards including the music for “Georgia On My Mind,” ‘Stardust,” “Up A Lazy River,” and “Heart and Soul”… his most memorable film roles were as—what else?—a piano player in the Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall classic “To Have And Have Not” and “The Best Years Of Our Lives”… he wrote “Stardust” in 1927 on an old upright piano at the Book Nook, across the street from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana where Carmichael earned his law degree…

1982, the unlikely duo of David Bowie and Bing Crosby score a #1 hit in the UK with “Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth,” the performance was broadcast five years earlier on a TV special… Simon Gallup leaves The Cure with Robert Smith and Laurence Tolhurst remaining on board…

1988, Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” begins a three-week stint at #1 on the U.S. singles chart… meanwhile Nirvana records their first album Bleach using $600 borrowed from a school friend… .

1989, a former cook in the restaurant owned by Chuck Berry takes her erstwhile boss to court for allegedly placing a camera in the ladies’ room…

1993, country-pop queen Shania Twain marries her producer and co-songwriter Robert John “Mutt” Lange… in 2008, they separate…

1994, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes pleads guilty to an arson charge for destroying the million-dollar Atlanta mansion of her boyfriend, Atlanta Falcon Andre Rison… Lopes is sentenced to five years probation and a $10,000 fine… she and Rison will get back together several times following the incident… Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy is #1 on the U.S. album charts…

1999, George Harrison and wife Olivia manage to subdue a home invader… Harrison is stabbed several times but will recover… the intruder is later arrested by police…

2004, Pollstar reports that Prince was the top concert draw in 2004 with $87.4 million in ticket sales… English singer-songwriter Seal and German supermodel Heidi Klum are engaged atop a glacier in Whistler, Canada… Grammy Award-winner John Mayer returns to his Connecticut alma mater to be inducted into its Hall of Fame—and wound up in the headmaster’s office… the 27-year-old guitarist and singer, a 1995 graduate of Fairfield Warde High School, decided to attend the induction ceremony but was barred due to school officials’ concerns about security… “We were not ready for John Mayer,” said Jim Conley, chairman of the school’s hall of fame committee…Mayer says he was taken to the headmaster’s office, where officials stalled him until the ceremony was under way and then walked him to his car… 2005, singer Tom Jones is knighted and thus joins the ranks of Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, and Sir Mick Jagger…

2006, R&B singer Brandy is involved in a four-vehicle freeway crash in L.A. when her 2007 Land Rover plows into a Honda at an estimated 65 mph… one of the drivers involved is killed while Brandy emerges unscathed… the California Highway Patrol says alcohol and drugs are not involved and is continuing an investigation… the following month she is sued for wrongful death by the family of the deceased and the CHP recommends that she be charged with vehicular manslaughter…

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